The Hidden Story Between Jaria
by bedfish
Summary: After waking up in Daria's bedroom together one morning with no explanation the best friends feel that maybe there is something more than friendship between them. But something always happens in Daria's life that breaks her dreams and fantasies apart.
1. What Am I Even Doing In Here?

"Daria, time to get up!" the crisp tone of her mother's voice floats into her bedroom.

She is about to utter some sarcastic complaint about waking up but closes her mouth in surprise when she feels something touching her back.

"_Daria?" _the familiar voice of her best friend, Jane Lane, whispers.

Whipping her head around she stifles a gasp at seeing the form of Jane under the covers next to her.

"What? I don't know Daria, lets just get up before your mother comes in."

_I am not sure I really want to know what happened last night, _she thinks to herself.

Her best friend climbs over her, walks over to the mirror and slips her boots on. Looking in the mirror while brushing her hair Jane sees Daria sitting on the bed looking at her and offers her a dry smile.

"DARIA! You'd better be up now!" her mother's voice screams up the stairs stirring Daria into motion. She hadn't changed into her pajamas last night for some reason or another so she leaps straight out into the hallway.

Helen, her mother, is coming up the stairs, evidently going to check on Daria.

"Good morning," Daria says, in her usual monotone.

"Oh darling, you're up already! Come down for breakfast. My usual 7 o'clock meeting was cancelled, I'm going to make a special breakfast for everyone."

"I-I need to go up and do something first," Daria says, cursing in her head at her stammer.

"Special breakfast, eh?" Jane says, smirking slightly.

"Perhaps. That is if Eric doesn't call her rescheduling this meeting."

Jane nods, looking straight at Daria. She looks as if she's distracted, thinking about something else.

"Uhm, Daria, are we going to talk about, you know, what um happened?" Jane asks nervously.

Daria felt suddenly nervous, "You probably just wanted to crash here instead," she replies, smoothly trying to ease the awkwardness of the situation. She'd never be outgoing enough to do anything about it but her friendship with Jane was getting more and more intimate.

They'd been through everything together, after they both went out with Tom, Daria's quick fling with Trent, both of which were extremely awkward relationships for the two of them.

It'd been at least six months since either of them had gone through any relationship dramas, and Daria had certainly stopped crushing on Trent.

After a few minutes of intensely awkward silence Daria daringly looks into Jane's blue eyes. She looks deeply concentrated, and if she's not being delusional, Jane's eyes are bright with intense longing. Daria hoped that her eyes wouldn't give away her game quite so easily, mind you, she could have just been imagining that look.

The moment is gone in just a few seconds, as Jane whispers goodbye.

"Yeah, uhh, see you at school," Daria whispers back.

Her mother looks at her weirdly when she comes down but Daria finds that she doesn't care. Let her family wonder, they'd never guess why she was so distracted.

All throughout breakfast and her walk to school she keeps seeing Jane's face and her bright, blue eyes.

Usually the two friends would meet up at Jane's house and get to school together, usually walking but occasionally Trent would drive them if he was awake at that ungodly hour of the morning but today neither of them had mentioned it so Daria decided to just make her way to school by herself.

Walking slowly to her locker Daria sees Jane approaching from the other side of the hallway. Daria lifts the corners of her mouth in an uncharacteristically happy smile. Jane's smile back is also unusually happy too.

Whatever happened last night had changed things between the two of them and Daria was pretty sure it was for the good. Telling her family would most likely be the opposite though.

From behind her Jane slammed her locker shut and clutched onto Daria's coat, dragging her across the other side of the hall.

"_Daria, c'mon, lets go in here_," Jane whispers right into Daria's ear, making her feel weird about her closeness.

Looking around she could see that the classroom was empty. Jane shut the door and turned the lock. Daria raised her eyebrows at Jane.

"So what are we doing here Jane Lane?" Daria asks, feeling some unusual enthusiasm about being in a locked classroom with just her best friend.

"I don't even know myself. Spur of the moment, I guess."

Feeling suddenly brave Daria turns to face Jane and looks straight into her eyes. Jane recoils slightly at the direct stare she's being given but eventually brings her eyes back up to Daria's. She takes a step forward and then without warning Jane has shoved her onto her back on the nearest desk. Her best friend leans in on top of her and presses her lips against her.

A million sparks are going off in Daria's head and her whole body is tingling. She had been thinking about her and Jane for a while now but she might have though things would have gone slowly.

"Mmh, Jane," Daria manages to choke out.

"Yeah?" she replies slowly.

"That was good."

Jane stifles a giggle then leans into Daria again and the two best friends kiss properly.

"Man, what would Trent think?"

"Jane!" exclaims Daria, "What are you doing thinking about Trent right now?"

"Oh god," Jane groans, "Yeah what the hell was I thinking?! But uhm, he still thinks about you that way you know."

Now it was time for Daria to groan, "H-he does?"

"Yeah, I promised him I'd talk to you about it... so um, I guess I told you,"

"Wow Jane, aren't you a great sibling," Daria says, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Crap. I feel horrible."

"Don't," says Daria simply and kisses Jane directly on the lips again, blocking out any reply she might have had.

"I hope no one has to use this classroom," Daria whispers in her normal curt manner after another series of breathtaking kisses.

Jane has taken her red coat off and Daria gets to admire her body a lot easier. She's reluctant to take her green jacket off, it has almost become a permanent part of her body but then so has her best friend, and now she wants to take things further with her.

"Janey," moans Daria as Jane caresses her body, still with clothes on. She inadvertently used Trent's nickname for her.

Jane doesn't seem to be bothered by this and keeps pressing on.

After who knows how long Jane stops to take off her own boots, and then Daria's. The bell for the start of the day has probably gone by now but they both know most of what the teachers will 'teach' them anyway. No one would notice their absence anyway.

Jane sits up on the table again looking at Daria with such a look that made her whole body and mind tingle with joy. Being so close in friendship just made all this all the more better.

Daria drags her body up to sit next to her best friend. She reaches out and starts to absentmindedly playing with her hair. She could tell that Jane was enjoying it as she wasn't saying a thing and just looked dreamily at Daria.

A while later Daria pulled her hand away and pulled Jane into an embrace. It wouldn't classify as just a friendly hug as they stayed in each others arms for at least a minute. Jane's lips were pressed into Daria's shoulder and she could feel them moving each time she swallowed.

Something silent that passed between them pulled them apart and they strode over to the classroom door after pulling on their shoes. They wouldn't go all the way this time, and perhaps they never would.


	2. Homophobia in the Hospital

"Daria."

A single word was uttered from the darkness and Daria turned towards the source of the noise in a fright. Her heartbeat slowed when she saw who it was. Trent.

"Trent?" she asks in a wary voice.

"I just wanted to uh-um, talk to you, you know, alone."

Daria looks at him weirdly, he seems unusually nervous, the musician generally had a cool, untouchable reserve.

"What's up?" she asks, trying to keep things from getting even more awkward.

"It's about Janey, she asked me to talk to you about , um, something," Trent says, his hands knotting around each other.

He looks at Daria expectantly, as if she should continue on for him but when she doesn't he goes on.

"Well, uh-um, she's sick," he utters the last two words out quickly.

"Sick?"

"Yesterday, after school. She came home complaining about a stomach bug, nothing unusual I guess, being around that paint all day but then it got worse. After dinner she ran out of the room and I could hear her, in the bathroom," Trent explains quietly, with a pained look on his face.

"So whats wrong?" Daria's heart is beating like crazy, what if something were to happen to Jane, who was one of the most important people in her life.

"She asked me to take her to the hospital, the pain was that bad. She has Chron's disease Daria."

"Is-is it fatal?"

"No, but she'll have to be on medication permanently and can't leave the hospital for a while now."

The blow hit her like a tsunami, crashing down her hopes and dreams and her forehead scrunched up in pain just thinking about it.

"Trent, I want to go see her, will you take me, now?" she asks, trying to not cry.

Trent looks at Daria briefly before saying, "Okay."

They both trace their steps back down the road and walked to the Lanes' carport. Just a few hours ago Jane and Daria had been in the house by themselves with not a care in the world. After leaving the classroom at school neither of them had been in the mood to attend school, and that made it the first time they'd wagged school. So they had headed back to Jane's place where there was no one to be seen, Trent and the band were out in some country town doing a gig.

But now, looking at the Lane residence it was almost impossible to believe things had been going perfectly with her best friend. Just a few words and her entire world had been shattered. What an illusion happiness was sometimes.

Daria glances at the car and without warning a distant memory floats back to her mind.

The first time Daria had a proper encounter with Trent.

After a rushed and awkward meeting, in which Daria was rendered speechless and devoid of all her usual sarcastic remarks, Jane was neatly giving them opportunities "alone" to "bond". Trent had been pretty much oblivious to Daria's massive crush on him, much to her relief.

Trent had invited Jane and Daria to come with them to a music festival.

Terrified Daria had hopped into the Tank, Max's old van, prepared to embarrass herself in front of Trent relentlessly.

The van had broken down, leaving the foursome stranded by the road. Jane had swept away with Jesse to look for help nearby, leaving Daria with Trent.

In hindsight, she hadn't mortified herself too much. Apart from that old sandwich of course.

Daria hadn't felt anything for Jane back then, just friendship, and a mutual hatred of other people of course.

Had she been sick then too? Or was it just recently that things had come into play. More likely the latter, as neither Jane nor Daria had ever been one that the fates were nice to.

Trent was driving more slowly than per usual. The combination of grief and reluctance to show Daria her best friend's state of health.

_It can't be all that bad, just three hours ago Jane was fine, _Daria thinks to herself trying to ease the worried thoughts. _Although the same goes with a car crash, three hours ago they were fine, and then that car hit them, _another bitter thought goes by her mind.

Her whole life Daria had been perfecting that sarcastic tone, the emotionless mask she put on herself to cover up her true thoughts. Meeting Jane had lightened up her life dramatically and started to break that mask. Maybe her being sick would finally make it fall off completely.

When they reached the Lawndale Hospital Daria hopped out of the car. Expecting Trent to follow she waited.

When he didn't get out she opened the car door again, "You coming?"

"No, I think I'll wait here. I'll give you a lift home after if you want."

"Oh, okay. Um, sure."

Bothered by Trent not wanting to come in Daria feels even more nervous about the whole situation.

She could feel the skin under her glasses sweating and her hands were shaking a bit. If she dared to look in a mirror she would probably see the trademark rash that formed whenever she was nervous.

The shiny, tiled surface of the reception clicked under her boots. A tired looking man looked up at the door hearing her arrival.

"Sorry, no visitors right now. There's been some.. complications."

"Complications?" Daria asks, hoping to God that it wasn't anything to do with Jane.

"There was an outbreak of something deadly contagious. All visitors are prohibited for the time being."

"My best friend, though. I-I need to see her," Daria whimpers.

The receptionist looks anxious at this show of emotion and turns to his computer.

"What's her name?" he asks.

"Uh-um. Jane. Jane Lane."

He types into the computer and a database comes up."

"You can't go and see her in person but a phone call certainly hasn't been prohibited."

"You mean I can talk to her?" she asks, excitedly.

"Yes."

Daria feels guiltily relieved and she didn't feel up to seeing Jane in person. Although a phone call could probably give just as good an indication of her status.

"I have a visitor at reception who would like to speak to a patient. That's not breaching protocol is it?"

"Yes. Jane Lane. Okay, yep that's fine."

"You can speak to her but for five minutes maximum."

Daria nods, not trusting her voice to not give away how she was feeling.

After a while there's a voice at the other end of the line and the receptionist picks up the phone again.

"Here you go," he says kindly, smiling at Daria in a way that makes her want to puke.

"Thanks," she says dryly anyway.

"Daria." Jane's voice is quiet and is nothing like its usual tone. Not even her trademark greeting, _yo._

"Jane. How're you feeling?" She feels silly for asking the question, of course she wouldn't be feeling 'Great! Let's go get some pizza to celebrate!', but what else could she say?!

"Crap Daria, I'm sorry, I didn't want all this to happen."

Daria scoffs, "It's okay Jane, obviously you didn't but hey, it happened anyway, thats life."

"Daria I don't exactly want all of your philosophical reasoning right now," Jane grunts.

"Sorry. I know," Daria sighs.

"So did Trent tell you everything about it all?"

"Yeah."

"This whole thing sucks doesn't it. And no one's sure how or why I got it. Mum and Dad are coming to see me, and they might even drag along a dozen or so other forgotten family members," she whines, still managing to fit in some sarcasm. The Lane family were not close, and Jane would often make sarcastic remarks about the situation.

"How come a contagious disease had to ravage the hospital right when I came to visit."

"Oh its the stars trying to keep us apart of course."

"Well, something had to didn't it," Daria mutters unthinkingly.

When Jane didn't reply Daria blurts out, "Sorry, that was horrible. I was just thinking about us, in fact I've really been thinking about us all day. And how things in my life never seem to work out. And that I want _us _to work out so badly." At hearing this the receptionist looked at Daria and frowned. _Ugh, great. _

"Awh Daria. You over think things. Everything'll turn out okay. You'll see," Jane reassures her.

"Thanks. I know. Its just hard."

The receptionist suddenly stands up and announces, "Five minutes is up thanks."

"Ugh, I've got to go Jane, but I'll come again as soon as this outbreak has cleared up I promise," she groans. There were just three other words that popped to her mind but she filed them away quickly, she didn't need _that _at the moment.

"See ya Daria."

She presses the end call button and the receptionist quickly snatches the phone away from her.

Daria gives him a piercing look at said, "Homophobia isn't healthy."

He drops the phone onto the receiver in surprise, "Excuse me?"

"You heard what I said. She's my best friend, we also happen to be going out too, if you have a problem with that its your problem. I'm not going to let someone else's stupid opinion change what I do," she says scathingly and rushes out the door before the idiotic receptionist saw her crying.

Outside the building Trent is still there, he looks up at Daria and looks away again when he sees her face.

She rushes to the car and rubs her wet eyes before getting in.

"Hey Daria," Trent says smoothly, sounding like his old self.

"Hey."

Trent doesn't ask anything about what happened much to the relief of Daria. She didn't feel like talking to anyone about anything right now.

It starts to rain on the way home, and by the time they arrive at the Morgendorffers' its pouring down.

"Thanks for the ride Trent."

"No problem. Uh-um you wanna come over after school tomorrow?" he asks.

She looks at him quizzically for a moment before replying, "Sure, see you then."

_School. _Tomorrow. Without Jane. It'd be the first time she'd ever attended Lawndale High without Jane's comforting presence. And there'd be questions. Someone would probably know by now that Jane was hospitalised, and they'd automatically assume that Daria would know about it. Which was true of course but extremely annoying. She couldn't fake sick tomorrow, her mother would know something was up. And she wasn't very fond of confessing her feelings to anyone, particularly a nosy family member.

The realisation of Jane being sick suddenly hit home and she stopped dead on the middle of the path. The tears rolled out of her eyes and she felt like screaming. The person who she loved the most wasn't ever going to be the same again.

Running to the front door she knocked and was greeted by Sandi, one of Quinn's self-centered, shallow and overly fashion conscious friends.

"Uh Quinn, its your cousin, she's like been outside."

"Just let me inside my own house."

"Okay then," she replies snidely.

Without even looking at Quinn and the rest of her friends she walks up the stairs to her bedroom. After her friends had gone Quinn would probably come up and ask why Daria was out so late. As a precaution she dragged her desk chair over across the door so no one could come in.

Absentmindedly she went over to the TV and switched it on.

..."Next on Sick, Sad World," the sound that came out of the television reminded her achingly of her best friend. She decided to watch it anyway. Sometimes a bit of self-anguish could do wonders.


	3. Solitary Schooling

"Daaaaria!" the unpleasantly pleasant sound of Helen wafted up into Daria's room. She groaned and pulled the covers over her ears. Something felt wrong, out of place. Then she suddenly remembered the event's of last night. She didn't care if people thought something was up anymore, she just couldn't bear the thought of getting up, eating breakfast in front of her family, going to school and just pretending everything was normal and Jane just had a cold and decided to stay home from school. Somebody probably knew anyway, they'd tell the whole school and Quinn would tell their parents. Then the inevitable _talk _would come. Jane's being sick was all too personal for her to confess everything to her parents. They'd always _almost _hinted at her being gay but had never quite admited it. She wouldn't tell them in a million years. They'd freak out at first. And then suddenly become scarily accepting, and offer Jane and Daria a million dollar trip to Paris and a private yacht trip around the world. She didn't want her family getting involved in her and Jane's relationship. _At all._

When her mother came in to force her out of bed she'd say she has a cold and doesn't feel up to going to school, half of which was true anyway.

But she'd promised to go see Trent after school. She'd have to go today. There was no other choice. Besides it would make things easier in the long run if she just got up and dealt with it.

"Ewwww, Daria!" her sister whines.

"What?" she snaps.

"Oh, sweetie, come with me," her mother looks around at her and says.

Begrudingly she allows herself to be pulled into the bathroom by her mother. She gasps as she realises why her sister reacted as she did to her presence.

"I am not going to school today."

Her rash. The trademark nervous one. That used to always pop up whenever Trent appeared. Now it was blooming everywhere as a sign of great stress in her life.

"Oh, Daria, it'll clear up, just forget about it for now."

It was made harder to forget by her sister constantly looking over at Daria and wrinkling her nose or occasionally muttering under her breath, "Ergh, _yuck." _

Daria keeps on death staring her mother to try and get her point across but she wasn't giving in.

"And all is peaceful and orderly in the family home," Jake says absentmindedly, and ironically, probably quoting some pretentious author who says they know everything about _orderly _living and just happened to be married to the editor of the newspaper they were published in.

For the whole day at school she misses Jane's presence. Each time Mr O'Neill said something stupid she turned around to make a cynical comment to Jane but each time she was greeted with an empty seat and she slumped back down in her seat.

"Daria, I want to speak to you," its only the start of lunch and yet already Mr O'Neill had noticed her slunking around by herself and sought her out to offer "support".

"Sorry, busy right now," she mutters in his direction, hoping to run away.

"Don't try to run away from help Daria. That's what gets you into troubled situations in the first place."

"I'm fine. Jane's just sick."

"She may be but I can see your distress, even in class. You two have never been separated like this before have you?" Mr O'Neill's intentions may be good but he seems to just point out the worst points in a situation and turn them into something a whole lot worse. Exactly what Daria didn't need right now.

Mr O'Neill continues to blab on about separation and feelings but she just lets the words float over her mind. She thinks back to last night at the hospital. Jane's voice. It just seemed so different. Weak, like the disease was draining something out of her. The thought of this made Daria feel weak too, like she was drowning, slowly, and nothing could stop her.

A movement from the corner of her eye made her spin around. It was Trent's car. He was waving at her from the driver's seat.

Without giving any thought to Mr O'Neill who seemingly hadn't even noticed her disinterest in his talk she ran off the school grounds.

"Hey Trent, thanks for coming here."

"I thought you'd need it."

Daria couldn't thank him enough for coming here, he'd practically rescued her from the fiery pits of hell. Thats what a day without Jane Lane was like.

"Have you heard anything from the hospital?" she asks Trent hopefully.

"Nope. Head over there tonight though."

"Together?"

He looks at her suddenly, "Together."

They spend the rest of the day at Casa Lane, Daria doesn't feel up to entering Jane's room, what with the paint smells, an unfinished piece of art and just the little things that make Jane's room her own.

Instead Daria and Trent lie down in the lounge room and watch TV together. Just a year or so ago Daria would have been blushing to her roots at being alone with Trent. Her crush had faded, and now her intimacy had turned to a relationship with Jane. Whether or not Trent liked her, as Jane had said earlier, it wasn't obvious. He'd always been skillful at deceiving people of his true feelings.

After they'd exhausted the Lanes' video collection they decided to head down to the hospital. Daria hoped very badly that the idiotic receptionist wasn't there today, although there was every chance that he would be.

"Daria?" Trent asks, pulling out of her thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Are you sure you're okay with this, I mean, you weren't exactly happy after going in there?" he asks, looking worried.

Daria looks at him weirdly, how did she expect him to know what happened if she was too scared to open up and tell him, "No, I'm okay... It was just the um, receptionist, he was a bit of a jerk."

To her surprise, Trent laughs out loud, adding his signature cough at the end, "Just like you Daria, just like you..." he trails off.

"Just like me to what?" she asks him accusingly. Daria had always been sensitive to people commenting on her personality.

"To get worked up over something like that, and not tell anyone else."

"He was homophobic!" she almost screeched but her voice trailed away at the end when she realised that statement might have given something away.

"Daria?! Why would that bother you so much, I know you're not very enthusiastic about other people having opinions but just don't take any shit from him."

"What?" she asks, completely confused as to whether Trent knew about her and Jane being more than friends.

"You know what I mean, just... Sometimes you can have standards that are too high, not everyone can live up them and it's not anyone's fault if they don't."

"I don't need your opinions to shape what I think and feel about things that are unfair and unnecessarily harsh."

With that she opened the passenger door of Trent's car and slammed it shut. Trent sighed and walked around to the other door.

"I'm sorry Daria," he apologised uncharacteristically once he had sat down in the driver's seat.

Daria grunted, as a sort of acceptance and they drove off to the hospital.

"Yo..." The weakened voice of Jane Lane whispered to Daria and Trent as they walked into her room.

Trent rushed straight over to Jane's side but Daria, feeling apprehensive stopped nearer to the door.

"Daria. How'd you cope with that receptionist?" Jane shouts out, still managing to have a loud voice.

"What do you mean?" she asks, _had she heard about the homophobic jerk too_?

"The _get on your nerves and strangle them _receptionist. I heard he was also a trifle homophobic as well," she says, with a wink at the end.

"Oh. That one. Yes," she said, a little dryly.

Trent turns around and gives Daria a funny look. She shrugs.

"Anywho, what's been happening?" Jane asks.

"Nothing. Daria came home to watch movies at our place. Then we came here."

Jane raises an eyebrow and says, "Came home? School hasn't even finished yet has it?"

"Nope," Trent replies lazily.

"Daria... Daria, you wagged school! And without me. What an event!" Jane exclaims, grinning at her.

"Trust me, it was no big deal. Mr O'Neill probably hasn't even noticed that I'm gone.

"Yeah true, he does get sort of absorbed in his self-esteem talks..."


	4. Something More

After a while the awkwardness between Jane and Daria dies down and Daria returns to her usual sarcastic mono-tone.

"Hey, well girls," Trent says inbetween conversation, "I might head off now, leave you two to yourselves for a while. I'll wait for you out the front Daria," he says, and heads out the door leaving Jane and Daria looking at each other funnily.

"I swear he knows something," Daria says scrunching up her eyes in annoyance.

"Who cares. We're amigos," Jane says, laughing.

"Sure we are," Daria whispers.

Trent had shut the door behind him when he left which meant that unless any particularly nosy nurses burst in suddenly they would not be disturbed.

Jane couldn't get up off the bed, she was too weak and sick at the moment but that didn't mean that the two best friends couldn't do a whole heap of other things.

Sinking herself into Jane's arms Daria breathes in her scent. Newly replaced with that harsh hospital smell, sanitiser and the metallic smell of paint which, although it wasn't as strong after two nights in the hospital would probably never go away completely.

"Mmmh, Daria, gee I missed you," Jane mutters in her ear.

"Me too Jane," Daria whispers back.

Forcing herself out of Jane's warm arms Daria reaches down and slips her boots off. She can almost feel Jane's smirk from the hospital bed as she stands up again.

Jane rolls over onto the other side of the bed and Daria lays down next to her. Jane takes her hand and leans her head onto Daria's shoulder.

Daria wriggled her shoulder around in a small fit of pleasure, placing her hand onto Jane's stomach. She tenderly stroked it, enjoying the sensation of her breathing under her own hands.

Her breathing was too fast and hagged for it to be classified as the breaths of a healthy person but right in that moment Daria wasn't too worried about that. As long as Jane and Daria could be together like this, for as long as they both wanted, it was all that mattered.

The sound of a knock at the door startles them both into action. Jane shoves Daria off the bed and she plunks back down onto the bed, closing her eyes in a pretense of being asleep. Daria flops onto the small, hard chair that was next to the bed and tries to look composed.

The door opens a little and a kind voice pops out, "Jane? Jane?" it says inquiringly, "I know you have visitors right now but do you mind if I just pop in?"

It must be the friendly nurse that Jane had told Daria and Trent a little about before.

A quiet groan comes from the bed, so realistic sounding that even Daria could have been fooled into thinking that Jane had actually been resting.

The nurse took the slight groan as a yes or just did not care either way. The door opens fully and in comes a large yet youthful woman.

"Oh! Hello, sorry, you must be... Daria! That's right, Jane's best friend, my, my she has told me a lot about you."

"Enough for you to guess who I am by my appearance I assume then," Daria replies, as silkily as ever.

To her ultimate surprise, the nurse looks directly at Daria, with a small smile, and says quietly, "Yes, I guess so."

Jane was sitting up again by then and she is smiling, evidently happy about the nurse coming in.

"Do you feel any better?" asks the nurse, looking over at a clipboard which was placed on the bedside table.

"Yes, a little," Jane says quietly and Daria feels a sudden burst of sadness and pain at these words. They made Jane, and her situation feel suddenly weak and helpless.

"No doubt having visitors would lighten your mood also?" The nurse asks, with a slight cheeky tone of voice.

Jane laughs slightly but does not reply.

"Anyway I'll come back in soon, after your guests are gone, you know what to do if you need anything, Jane deary," she says kindly, and adds, "Don't you worry we're taking good care of her, she'll be out of here in no time." She finds it necessary to wink at Daria after saying this making her feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Shouldn't you be telling her family members that?" Daria asks pointedly.

"Oh, of course... Them too."

When the nurse had left Daria turned to Jane and grimaced. Jane just grinned back at her.

"Oh lighten up a little Daria, she doesn't mean anything by it."

"No I'm sure she didn't. She could have layed off on the winking though.

"Your sense of humour never seems to come out in awkward situations such as this does it?" Jane asks, more of a rhetorical question.

"Well, I should probably leave now. _Trent's waiting._"

"And so he is. And will be for the next ten minutes," Jane exclaims rather loudly, grabbing Daria by the waist and pulling her onto the bed, next to her. Daria's inner wishes were too strong for her to resist and she let herself be pulled into Jane's body.

Their disagreement forgotten for the time being Daria and Jane spend the next ten minutes in one of the most intimate ways a couple can.

Daria felt alive at Jane's touch, she who had helped her through the beginning of high school at Lawndale, and still was. They wrapped their arms around each other's waists and kissed passionately. Daria could feel Jane's body shivering with pleasure underneath her hands. It gave her the best feeling in the world. One that could only be shared between the two of them. By then Daria's green jacket had been ripped off and Jane stripped off into the light cotton pyjamas the hospital provides to their patients as underwear for the dressing gowns.

With a lack of clothing they could explore each other's bodies almost unprohibited. Daria reached down to Jane's shirt and slowly undid the first button. Then the next. And the next after that. And finally down to the last one where she drew in her breath and froze. Jane reached up to her face and put a firm finger over her glasses and they slid off. This seemed to give Daria the courage to undo the final button on Jane's shirt. Underneath, sure wasn't wearing a bra, was her bare skin. Unaffected by the sun, or by anyone.

"Jane," Daria whispers, breaking up at the sight of what was under the shirt.

Although the shirt was undone, Daria only had a view of a straight line of skin from the middle of her nape to right down to her belly button. Absentmindedly she traced her finger down the line, feeling Jane's skin shiver under her.

Quite suddenly Jane reached up and undid Daria's top button. Looking up at her face she hesitated for a second, before seeing the slight nod of Daria's head.

Part of her wanted Jane to just rip her shirt off and for the two of them to kiss, breasts against breasts, full on, passionate but the rest of her was terrified. Not sure what about, but terrified all the same. Daria had never been one to trust intimately and Jane was the one she trusted the most. This was one sure way of possibly destroying that trust and she was terrified of that. In the end her inner desires, and something more sexual than emotional overcame her fear and she let her best friend take her somewhere else. They were together though. They would get through everything together too.

"Daria." One single word was uttered after they had broken apart, out of breath but infinitely happy.

"Yes, Jane?" Daria, replies back, somewhat nervously.

_"I love you."_

_"_You _what?" _Daria shouts back, without thinking at all first.

Jane's eyes blur with tears, she knew it was stupid thinking that this wouldn't have ended up happening if she told Daria that she loved her. Deep down inside Daria knew that she loved Jane.

"Do y-you love me?" she asks.

"Do you?" Jane asks again.

"Well, tell me, Daria! I'm sick of this. You being all banded together and not able to admit anything or trust anyone and I'm stood up. I love you Daria..." Jane cries out.

Inside Daria burns with guilt for the sadness, which she had been building up for a while now, that she had brought upon the person that, although she wasn't ready to admit it, she loved and trusted the most.


	5. Nothing At The Moment

"...I-I don't know Jane," Daria spits out to try and ease the sudden wall that was put up around the two of them.

"You don't know? Hell, Daria. Thats low, even for you," Jane shouts.

"I'm sorry," Daria pleads. Jane just raises her eyebrows, pretending not to care.

"You know what? You're not. Just go. Daria, leave me alone, I don't need your crap, I could be dying and I don't need stupid people like you in my life right now so piss off!" Jane screams at her.

Jane's harsh voice and words rip at Daria's conscience and a tear trickles down from the corner of her eye. Without saying another word she runs out of the room, down the corridor and past the stupid receptionist.

"Daria?" Trent asks quietly when she enters the car.

"..Nothing, I-I don't want to talk about it," Daria replies, fighting to hold back tears.

"I respect your right to talk when and if you want but honestly I think if for once you would open up just a little you might find some happiness. Just give it a try Daria. Not everything in this world is horrible."

"Really?! I've already had at least three people tell me that this week. Its part of who I am, stop trying to change me."

"Fine then Daria."

After being dropped off at her house Daria couldn't find the willpower to face her parents who always seemed to know when something was up. Instead she decided to stay in the garage for the night. She would sneak out and go to school before her parents even realised where she was.

Trying not to make a huge noise she rolled the garage door open and hopped into Jake's old first car, the one he was still too nostalgic to get rid of, or fix, even though the steering wheel had broken off many years ago. She curled up on the back seat, mulling through the experiences of today, trying to erase or hide away the bad ones and remember the good ones.

Daria fell asleep remembering the taste of Jane's skin, and the feel of their lips pressing tightly together.

Waking up in the morning, after such pleasant dreams, she was suddenly dragged back to reality. Her and Jane probably weren't ever together anymore, and Daria knew how hard it could be for people who love each other to talk rationally.

Checking her watch, 7:30 AM, she felt a rush of dread about going to school. Mr O'Neil, who didn't have mean intentions but was irritating nonetheless would obviously be _very concerned _about what happened to Daria yesterday. And she didn't particularly feel like explaining the finer details.

"Darrriaaaa, where are you?! Its not like you to be up already at this time!" Daria gasped as she heard her mother's voice directly above her head. It was Helen coming into Daria's room to wake her up. She would most likely end up grounded if her parents found out that she had never _officially _come home. Shaking her stiff shoulders she decided to face her fears, aka her parents.

"Oh thereeeeeee, you are darling, come on, let me make you some breakfast... Didn't you brush your hair this morning? It looks dreadful, oh do let me do something with it this weekend."

Daria rolls her eyes and says, "You haven't seen me since I left for school yesterday and all you can say is that my hair looks bad, thank you Mum."

"I know darling, I'm sorry about that, Jake and I had a very important dinner with some of my clients last night. I'm sure Quinn and you kept yourselves entertained."

So _that _was why her mother wasn't in the least suspicious of Daria's whereabouts last night. She'd have to bargain with Quinn to make sure she wasn't going to dob.

"Here you go honey, enough of those Pop Tarts that you always have, full of sugar, must be horrible for you. This oatmeal should do you some good."

Daria wrinkled her nose at the skin coloured mush that was piled into the bowl. Her mother wouldn't let her leave the house until she'd eaten it but that didn't mean it had to be sugar-free did it?

When Helen leaves the room she rushes over to the sugar jar and pours a quarter of it in the bowl, mixing it around.

_At least this might not poison me now. _


End file.
